Huge Art Clean Out

Well! I've been a busy person today!

After yesterday's struggle with basic algebra and trying to get my 50,000 words done for NaNoWriMo, and making it with 8 words to spare, I'm pleased with my book this past month - and I got it done with a day to spare too.

Also, I was totally surprised by a male Huntsman spider taking a walk across my living room floor... he wasn't a very old spider, or smart one (as these guys are known to be smart). He waited under my kitchen table for me to get my shoes on and the bug spray and was surprised when I tried to kill him.

Well, he's dead and I didn't sleep for a good part of the night.

Today, I jumped into my art section next to my back door (no he didn't come from there, I just needed to work on the art desk in the next few days that's all). So, I pulled that desk apart and got my butt into the whole thing!

Anyway, 3 bags of crap later, and a few trips to the big recycling bin at the back of my complex, I found I filled up my rubbish bin - and collection day is next Wednesday! So, I'll have to leave decluttering another part of the house for a little while. 

But the whole section looks and feels so much cleaner. I have 2 empty boxes to use, have got 2 plastic boxes I'm using for other art gear and have enough space for a new hobby I've picked up: painting rocks. 

All of the clean up took 3 hours to do, and it was a stinking hot day! And I got into this after doing 3 loads of laundry this morning and putting out 2 big bags of rubbish into my bin... so that was something. Anyway, what did you get into this weekend which you've been putting off? I still have a few things around the house to put away and clean up before the tree and decorations go up around the house for Christmas. 

By The Back Door

Isn't it funny how much we use doors, and yet we ignore how much mess is next to and around them?

Well, today, I nearly tripped over something next to my back door and I knew why - there was a huge mess there I had been ignoring for over a year. So, I got in and cleaned it up.

There was 2 rubbish bins - one of which I really didn't need - and the other was full to brim with art and craft things which were supposed to be tossed out last year. So, I went through the craft gear and sorted it out, figured out what I wanted to keep, what I wanted to throw out and put everything being tossed out into a big rubbish bag.
Meanwhile, I moved a red container filled with wooden sprung clothes pegs. Yeah, in my 'Crafty Peg' days, I went kinda nuts in collecting them. Now? Well, I'll never run out of them, will I? But my plastic ones are going brittle and I'm looking whether to get in and work on a collection of wooden ones for myself - thus why I haven't given away any of these ones.

Well, swept up the area, threw out an old cockroach trap and put an empty bin back, and the container full of pegs and it looks good. What I threw out was a really old bin, anything I didn't need and it all went out into the big bin in the car port. Yep, that's another bag of rubbish out of the house! I'm so pleased!

Craft Gear Out The Door

Well... okay, it's not all going to be thrown out or given away. I've seen the light and thought to sell some of my art gear I no longer wish to have online - yep, the easy way.

The first thing I've done is grab the big bag of knitting yarn and sort it into matching sets of yarn balls and photograph them and get them organised and price them. Then, I jumped into my favourite craft group and offered them all up at $2.00 a ball - and .50c for half-used balls - with no shipping attached to any of it... and I added in the photos and now I'm going to wait and see what's going to happen. 

I hope to have some of my friends take these off my hands and enjoy the yarn this year. I do have other yarn in that bag, and that's all staying - as it's going to be used in other patterns I'm looking at. Otherwise, my craft gear is getting a big cleanout unlike it ever did in the past. But the one thing is that I may not toss out as much as I did last year because I've streamline everything so much that I know where it all is. 

So, what are you going to do with your craft gear - if you have any? And is it into the Donation Box for it or online sales this time around? Do leave a comment and let us know. 

Art Area Overhaul

Over the next few weeks, I'm doing a huge art area overhaul. I've actually already started in on it; and I'm hoping to get it all cleared out and cleaned up by the end of October. 

This past weekend, I attended the Logan Artists Association Market Day and sold off as much of my Crafty Pegs hand crafted items as I could, at bargain basements prices. A lot of people thought what I was selling was expensive, but when I told them they were a quarter of the price I normally sell them, they really jumped in and bought up big... and I made a good lot of money. 

But I still have some stock left over. So, I'm looking at either giving it all away to nursing homes - where the older ladies will use it, or selling it all on Gumtree, if I can. Either way, I need to get rid of my stock box completely - but there are boxes in it I'll keep for my art area. 

Yesterday afternoon, I moved my art table I got from Oma's house into my storage area under the stairs and the two storage boxes from my markets where it used to live... so I can work through them and downsize them in a big way. The large plastic boxes will be put to use as storage boxes in my wardrobes and I'll put them away upstairs, replacing other boxes filled with things.

On my birthday (early-October), I'll be buying two Stratco shelving units and putting them into the hallway of my kitchen, where all my smaller and heavier items from my art area will be going. The work bench will be moved across toward the door and thus, I'll have more space to move around. I'll be storing my esky/cooler in the shelves along with my food processor, yoghurt maker, along with other boxes of art and craft gear and books on art, painting and needlepoint... it'll all be in those two shelving units.

The two boxes of craft and art gear will be emptied out and sorted. The table clothes and props for a market will be organised and that box will be upstairs and in use for something else. The other one will be organised and the pin cushions, pegs, magna-pegs and other craft items I've made will be sold off or donated to my old craft group to be sold off there and the money donated to the community centre. 

I'll have more space in the living room by this time. This is my plan and I'm hoping to stick to it. I'm also hoping that my smaller canvases will fit into one of the shelving units, while the larger canvases which are floating around the hallway right now, will be able to fit underneath the workbench. I'll have to see how it all works out. 

So, there you have it. My plan for my art area. It's big. It's complex. It's a pipe dream from where everyone stands right now... as nobody can see it happening; except me. But it's what I want to happen in the next month. I have some of the money for the shelving units and now, I'm working on saving the money for the rest of it. 

So, do tell, what's your big plans for your journey through decluttering? Is it so big you almost can't see it happening? Or is it something you're chipping away at slowly? 

Second Half of the Year

I've been busy lately - really busy - and have turned my life around in a big way too. So, this is why I haven't posted in here for a while.

I'm sorry.

Anyway, I've joined a gym, have been getting assessed, going to yoga classes and sorting out my depression... yep, it's been going on. But while I've been going to the gym, I've also come home and found that I really need to throw out more and more of my junk (Yay! See, I called my stuff junk - finally!). 

I've thrown a collection of bottles into a bag for the Logan Artists Association - there'll be people there who will use them. And then, I collected together every plastic bag I've got in the house and put them into my 'Plastic Recycling Bag' on the carport door to take to Coles - where there's a recycling bin - to stuff them inside that.

I have brought all the laundry to be folded and sorted into my bedroom (yep, I am lazy at doing that kind of thing) and finally, I'm going to be cleaning out the last 3 boxes in the home office this weekend. You see, I have a folding step-ladder for this office, and it's sitting in the living room because I can't fit it into the office right now. Isn't that sad that I have something for this office that I can't fit in here because of my junk? It sure is!

Now, that's for just this weekend... for the rest of this year, I'm going to get my butt into decluttering the whole house - this includes getting rid of this Super-Amart corner desk and buying myself a nice ordinary desk with drawers to put in across the window (I know, I know, you can't see what I mean, but it's a shitty desk I've had for ages and it just doesn't have the space I want it to. My computer crammed into a corner - and I hate that. 

The art area downstairs is going to undergo a huge overhaul too. I'm saving to get a shelving unit - with an extra shelf - for the hallway to the kitchen and get rid of the tall, skinny bookcase, as it doesn't hold everything I want it to anymore. That bookcase will be donated to Vinnies, along with my old desk (which means I'll need the assistance of my folks and their trailer to donate these things) and I'll also be pulling my office apart to get the desk in as well - once I find it. 

This will all be happening over a few months - but the shelving unit will be installed by my birthday in October! So, that'll be first, and the desk might be in by the New Year... who knows, I might be ditching this desk by the time I get into another place. 

So, what are you plans for your place? Have you been decluttering, cleaning out, or are you planning and saving up for something to make you place more efficient - like me? 

It's All In the Planning

Decluttering does work well when it's planned... and with my garden and its facelift, I had been planning that for around 2 months. 

So, when I walked inside the back door and realised my home needed another facelift, well, of course, this meant I'd be tossing out things in a big way... and also replacing some items with more sturdy items too. 

Even though my house is full of items which I've hand-picked from op-shops, I still go through it from year to year making sure I use those picked-out items. Sometimes if I find something I no longer use, I give it away; and you know? I don't miss it. 

This seems kinda cold, I know, but really it's a good thing to do around the house - in not particular order - to keep your place in good working order.

I mean, look at what I did with my books earlier this year. I cleaned them out in March and gave away 40 books! Yes, I gave them away without thinking about it... but I also gained just as many. This was something I had to do with the place to make it work out well. But, still I'm struggling to store the books where I need them. 

My art area is in great need of a make-over now. And by October, I'll have enough money set aside to work on it. Just like I planned ahead with the garden facelift, I have to plan ahead with any kind of facelift I do with the house. You see, I don't have a credit card, and don't wish to have one either; as I hate being in debt to anyone or any bank. It hasn't really worked out the way I thought it would... as I can't for the life of me get a home loan. Sad but true.

Anyway, not having a credit card means I don't have to be worrying about debt or paying off things all the time... or money. I plan head better for things that's all. And when you have the luxury of planning a few months in advance, you can sometimes come into your next part of your project with clearer eyes and a better idea of how it's going to work out. This is because you've given yourself the time to plan.